The upcoming presidential election is, in my opinion, the most important in our nation’s history. It will essentially be a referendum on whether or not the United States is what our founders intended it to be.

Powdery mildew is probably the most common garden fungi around. It is not too terribly picky about where it spreads. It likes humid and dry weather, thrives in the heat of the summer and is hard to control once it has started. The trick here is to prevent it from happening by proper plant selection, spacing and treatment before it takes hold.

It is a historical fact that on the rainy night of May 8-9, 1825, the steamboat, Mechanic, sank in the Ohio River with the Marquis de Lafayette aboard. Several varying narratives of the shipwreck, have been recorded, and each makes separate claims to the authenticity.

First, a brief sketch of the official legend, from Thomas De la Hunt’s “History of Perry County,” written in 1916, 91 years after the shipwreck.

I like the way newspaper editors wrote 50, 75 and even 100 years ago. There is a certain authoritative flair to their words, particularly in editorials. The opinion piece that follows my portion of this column ran in 1966 on the future of the Rome Courthouse. The building’s use as a school had ended with the construction of Perry Central and there were concerns on what would happen to the historic building.

Andrea Neal is a teacher at St. Richard’s Episcopal School in Indianapolis and adjunct scholar with the Indiana Policy Review Foundation. This is one of a series of articles leading up to the state’s bicentennial in December.

During the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan took Indiana by storm. Ninety years later, Hoosiers still struggle to grasp why.

Seventeen years is a long time in any position and few jobs in a community are as important as administrator of a local hospital. Joe Stuber has shouldered the duties of Perry County Memorial Hospital well and as he caps his career, we wish him well and thank him for a job well done.

Stuber retired last week after holding the position of hospital president and chief executive officer since 1999.

We have all asked the question, “why hasn’t my plant bloomed?” Sometimes the answer is as simple as not enough sunlight, not old enough, not cold enough or hot enough, etc. In fact, it could be as simple as a little digging and dividing for some renewed blooming attitude.